Six Impossible Ideas Before Breakfast
by PhantomThiefOnyx
Summary: Set during the movie. Dom adds his artist sister to the team as a second architect as an insurance policy against Mal. There's some flirtation between this new girl and Eames which sets Arthur into a foul mood.  ArthurOC & Eames OC flirtations.
1. Chapter 1

**RING**

A woman, nearing her thirties, wakes from a dead sleep at the sound. Her heart instantly quickening in speed as she reaches for the hotel phone, she halts just before picking up the receiver, waiting to see if it rings again. Praying it doesn't.

**RING**

"Shit," she curses and picks up. "Hello?"

"Ms. Smith," it's the hotel receptionist, "there are some gentlemen here asking for you, I know it's late but they say it's urgent."

"What are they wearing?" 'Ms. Smith' asks, but it doesn't matter because she is already pushing her clothes into her one small travel bag as quickly as possible.

"Excuse m-"

"What are they wearing!" the woman yells impatiently, as if everything rides on this one small detail, when in reality she knows no matter what she's leaving this hotel in a few moments. She's slipping her feet into a pair of running shoes and straightening her shorts and tank top.

"Um… expensive looking suits?"

**CLICK** 'Ms. Smith' slams the receiver back into place.

"How did they _find _me?" she asks her reflection as she hastily ties her long blonde hair out of her face. But there's no time to really wonder about that now. She tosses her bag over one shoulder and grabs her blue suede charm bracelet off the nightstand and sprints out the door.

She hesitates for a fraction of a moment only to fascine her bracelet on her wrist and check a specific charm. "Real," she gasps aloud and takes off toward the fire escape.

She's glad when the emergency door gives way easily when she bumps it with her hip. The alarms in the whole building instantly squeal to life, exactly as she intended. The other hotel guests would be swarming out of the building, hopefully slowing down the men that are after her.

The dim lights in the stairwell make the flashes from the emergency lights all the more disorienting, sending the blonde woman stumbling down a handful of steps. She lands awkwardly on her bag, a heel of one of her shoes slamming painfully into her ribs. She lets a few choice words escape but continues her sprint down the last two flights of stairs before throwing open the back doors into a Paris alleyway…

…and crashing right into someone who tries to grab her. She feels the smooth silk of a tie, catches the scent of some expensive cologne and twists her body at the last second. The man finds purchase only on her bag and she just lets it go, knowing that if they get her she will be wearing an orange jumpsuit with a number on it for the rest of her life. _Or perhaps, _she tells herself, _I'll be wearing her best dress in a coffin._

"Wait, sweetheart!" he calls. That voice sounds so familiar, but she can't afford to stop if she's not sure.

"Alice, darling wait!"

Then the voice registers Alice spins around in shock. "Eames?" she pants, out of breath. "What the hell," and collapses onto the dirty cement, unable to keep her feet beneath her.

Eames strolls over and tosses her bag at her feet. "He was right, you really are in a lot of trouble aren't you?"

"Who says I'm in trouble? And I'm not, what makes you think that I am?"

"Is it normal for a woman to run from her hotel room into a dark alley then when she has visitors?" he teases while rocking back on the balls of his feet, fists in his trouser pockets.

Alice just shrugs noncommittally, but can't help a playful smile from rising to her lips.

The door Alice had just come out of bangs open and then closed, "Eames, did she come out this way?" A man calls.

"I've got her over here. You gave her quite a start it seems."

The footsteps get closer and closer until finally this man steps into the light and stops, "Dom!" Alice speaks in a voice overflowing with emotion and gets to her feet to throw her arms around Dom and hugs him.

Dom is taken aback, the last time he and his baby sister had seen each other this friendly exchange wouldn't have seemed so awkward, but a woman hasn't hugged Dom in quite some time, not in the real world anyway. He awkwardly pats her back and smoothes wisps of hair from her face. "Hey, Alice."

"How did you find me?"

"**I** found you." Another voice says; Alice looks over Dom's shoulder toward the emergency exit door. The door is open, so when the emergency light inside flashes again Alice realizes who this third man is.

The Point Man.

"Arthur, well if anyone could find me I guess it would be you."

"Don't encourage him, love." Eames warns.

Alice giggles at the natural tension in the air between these two men. They have never gotten along well and it's comforting to know that not all things change with time. She steps away from Dom and scoops her bag off of the ground.

Arthur walks over and holds a hand out for her bag. _Always the gentleman_. Alice passes the bag to him, she's not a girl to be doted on, but it's late and she's too tired to let her pride get the best of her.

"Let's get out of here before the cops show up." Dom suggests, and leads his three companions out of the alley and to a small dark gray car.

Arthur pops the trunk and tosses Alice's bag in before shutting it and sliding into the passengers seat. Dom takes the wheel; Alice sits behind him and Eames behind Arthur. Eames promptly punches Arthur's headrest, Alice stifles a giggle with the back of her hand, Arthur responds to the taunt by violently reclining his seat. Eames grimaces in pain when the chair smashes his knees, while Alice can't help but to burst into laughter as Dom looks on disapprovingly. Arthur gives Eames a smug grin, and puts his seat back into the correct position.

Alice catches Dom's eye in the rearview mirror and he gives her a single shake of his head. She gets the message and lets the laughter die on her lips and turns her head to watch the Paris city lights fly by.

Unable to bear the deafening silence any long Alice asks, to no one in particular, "Why are you here to get me anyway?"

"We've got a very big job lined up for us, haven't we boys?" Eames starts.

"I might be able to go home, if we do this right." Dom says softly. Alice scoots forward in her seat to rub Dom's shoulder comfortingly; he reaches up with his free hand, keeping the other securely on the wheel, to give her fingers a soft squeeze.

"We still have to work out the exact plan, but we need you on the team again." Arthur continues for the trio, "No matter how we do it it's going to be tricky. We need you, because you're the best architect we know."

"You'll be working with some one else though, quite good for a beginner. A new girl, she's in college, lovely thing really." Eames interrupts.

"You're hurting my feelings over here Eamsey." Alice whines while holding a hand dramatically over her heart. "And you mean I'm the strangest architect you know, Arthur."

"I didn't want it to come off as an insult, but yes; you have the most bizarre way of looking at things and we're going to need that."

"So what do you say?" Dom asks, again catching his sister's eye in the rearview.

"I'm in. One condition though."

Dom raises a brow in anticipation.

"Who ever is getting you cleared… I want the same deal."

It's quiet for a moment; the three men pass cautious glances at one another. Dom and Arthur speak at the same time, "I can't make that promise, Alice." "Alice, what did you do?"

"I didn't **do** anything," she growls at Arthur defensively, "not really anyway. No more than what you are all doing. But I got caught – set up, really – people, especially powerful people, don't like others poking around inside their brains. So when they wake up and find one of the people who was in their dream hooked up to them on a machine they tend to want justice."

Eames was a bit confused, "You got caught?"

"The dream started to collapse, The Mark realized he was dreaming, we failed the mission. My 'team' left me there as a scapegoat." Alice explained as she pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the car window, "There are more and more charges being made as Extraction becomes more popular. Theft, trespassing, people are trying to get assault added and God only knows what else; and I'm up against some important people, people with money and power. I'm looking at a long prison sentence."

"Oh," is all Arthur says. Eames lets out a long dwindling whistle.

"I'll ask Saito in the morning if he can get cut you the same deal." Dom assures her.

"Thank you, Dom. Where am I supposed to stay until then?"

"With me," Dom tells her. "We're staying in a hotel not too far from the warehouse we'll be working in. I'll get you your own room tomorrow after everything's settled."

Alice yawns, "Okay big brother. Wake me when we get there."

But of course no one has the heart to wake her when she looks so peaceful, even if she is cramped against the car door. Eames bids the two men goodnight and much to Arthur's displeasure kisses a handful of Alice's golden hair before departing. Dom picks up the woman carefully as not to wake her and carries her up to his suite, Arthur following close behind with Alice's travel bag.

"I'll have her to the warehouse by ten, make sure everyone's there by then for me." Dom instructs a he gingerly lays Alice down on the pullout couch.

"Sure." Arthur pauses, not wanting to step out of line, then continues, "Dom, do you really think this is a good idea?"

The older man nods, "You've seen Mal in there. I brought Ariadne onto the team because I don't know how she sets things up yet. Alice is mostly for insurance. I know I won't be able to understand just how her dreams work, and the projections won't either. She's spontaneous, she can do things on her toes in a dream that no one else would ever, excuse the poor pun, dream of. You said it yourself, she does some fantastic things to perception and the mind."


	2. Chapter 2

"She's a fine arts major, she's not even an architect. I doubt she knows anything related to physics. This is ridiculous!"

"Cat fight," the chemist, Yusuf, chuckles off to the side.

Ariadne isn't pleased, to say the least, to learn that Alice will be joining her in the creation of dream worlds.

Dom is about to calm her down, talk her back into her senses, when Alice cuts in with a snarl, "I don't need to know the physics of anything. Not in a dream. None of it has to make sense – hence the title of **dream**! Just because you don't understand how something happens doesn't mean that it can't happen – that you can't **make** it happen, especially not in a dream."

"Maybe the best way for Ariadne to understand what Alice does is to see it first hand?" Arthur says, trying to calm the two.

"Fine," Dom grumbles. "But we don't have time for fooling around after this; do you understand me, Alice?"

"Me?" Alice gasps, completely dumbfounded. Dom just fixes her with a serious glare; he can't boss Ariadne around like he can his baby sister.

"Eames," Alice calls in a sickeningly sweet manner.

"Yes love?" Eames replies in a similar tone.

"Ari and I need that wonderful brain of yours for five minutes." Alice explains, skipping across the warehouse to him.

"It's Ariadne." the college girl argues. No one either cares, or listens.

"Why me?" Eames asks, plainly curious. However, even without an answer he tosses his folder of papers onto the desk before him and gets up.

"Because you're the Forger, and you're the only other person in here that knows what I know: things are only impossible if you believe them to be so."

"I thought it was: things aren't always as they appear?" he says with a coy smile.

"Same difference. Also, your subconscious is more used to things changing rapidly in a dream because it's what you do best. So I'll have a little more time before your projections realize what's going on and tear me apart."

"Stop flirting and let's get a move on." Dom grumbles.

Alice, Eames and Ariadne pull together three chairs and Arthur hooks the three of them up to the Dream Machine suitcase. "Five minutes, one hour," the Point Man reads out, and depresses the button.

Alice hasn't felt this in more than a year, but the feeling of being put under is familiar. A coldness sweeps up her arm and through her body, into her head; then she's falling against a cool material that she can only describe as feeling like a nylon stalking that's wonderfully warm and encases her whole body, until finally…

Alice **pops** through to the other side, Eames dream world, where Ariadne has already build a lush green park all around them. _Control freak._ Alice huffs to herself.

"Well go ahead already. Amaze me," the Architect dares.

"Ok," Alice sucks on her bottom lip thoughtfully and plops her butt onto the ground. "I got to hand it to you Ariadne, you are doing a good job – this feels pretty real. But you're still way too inside the box. You predictable, spontaneity is key." Alice goes back to thinking looking around at her scenery, waving her hands in the air miming shapes.

Ariadne gives Eames a skeptical look who returns her look with a shrug and a smirk.

After five dream minutes Ariadne grows impatient, "I thought you just said spontaneity was key?"

"Well I did and it is. I just wanted to blow you away so you wouldn't question me anymore. But fine, if you want spontaneity you've got it, honey." Alice declares. She rises to her feet and brushes grass off the seat of her pants, "First let's get rid of this tacky park." She waves her hand in front of her as if erasing chalk from a blackboard and everything Ariadne had built is wiped away. They are left standing in a world of white, no discernable floor, walls or ceiling. "Now pay attention."

Alice moves her hands through the air around her looking like a cross between a painter who has just found her muse and a conductor of the largest ensemble known to man. Her gestures are smooth and soft in some places - like the soft caress of a lover - other times her gestures are sharp and quick as if her hand is burned by some unseen coal. After a few moments she halts, a content smile up on features and her blue eyes lit from within with a fire that, until now, had been slowly suffocating.

"Nothing happened." Ariadne says flatly.

Alice smirks and without a word sprints off, as quickly and gracefully as a panther. Eames takes off after her and Ariadne has no option but to follow the two.

"Jump!" Alice commands, as she leaps into the air – everything is still white as far as the eye can see – and in a beautiful arc shoots back toward the ground.

Ariadne feels terror well up inside because she knows that Alice will only end up a crumpled heap on the white terrain. In spite of this knowledge Alice does not hit any ground, in fact, where Ariadne had expected the other woman to smash into the ground, Alice vanishes straight through, as if diving into a pool. As Alice dives into this invisible void a splash of vibrant turquoise ripples up from her vanishing point. Eames never misses a beat – trusting Alice to know what she's doing – and leaps after her, an eruption of royal purple is kicked up as he too disappears.

_That's not possible. I can't do that!_ Ariadne argues with herself, and at the last moment her hesitation gets the best of her.

It's just a moment too late however, and Ariadne goes skidding quite ungracefully after her cohorts into the imperceptible opening with a glop of pink rising to the surface after her.

Ariadne continues her less than graceful descent by thumping hard on her rear in the level below. Eames and Alice chuckle at her expense, "Careful Ariadne, hesitation kills." Alice warned her and surprised them all by helping the girl up onto her feet.

"This is spectacular, pet." Eames says clearly blown away.

Alice throws open her arms and exclaims at the top of her lungs, "Welcome, Ariadne, to _my_ Wonderland!" and carries on to spin merrily in a circle.

It was upon this prompt that Ariadne took in the sights around her, the sights that had already dazzled Eames.

The sky was a deep purple-blue with a fat moon that glowed a soft blue and was surrounded by thousands of stars that stretched on in every direction. Great golden mountains rose out of the distance to meet the sky on the horizon and shimmered in the moonlight. The gold of the mountains continued all the way, however many miles it was, into the dirt all around the trio and from this glimmering golden dirt that Alice had designed, grew thin and unbelievably sharp crystals. _No,_ Ariadne realized_, it's grass, it's just dreamt up to __**look**__ like crystals. When I fell it was soft._ Sure enough, when Ariadne reached down to touch the blades they flexed under her hand like the fur on a cats back. There was vegetation everywhere, flowers of every size and in colors that you would only find in a crayon box, tree trunks shifted from gold to a vivacious yellow with leaves the same purple as Eames splash had made. There is so much that Ariadne can't finish taking it all in.

So instead she turns back to admit to Alice that she has some amazing abilities. But how would this help the job? Yet, upon seeing Alice she silenced herself. The older woman was still spinning elegantly; Eames held one of her hands above head as she spun like a top.

_I wonder if she'll ever stop?_ Ariadne muses.

"You're making me dizzy, Alice." Eames laughs.

Alice stops to smile, giggle and walk away, without a single stumble in her stride. It's clear that while the spinning had Eames dizzy there was no effect on her. Waving aside some brush before her Alice reveals an ascending staircase, Alice beckons her two friends over and they all commence on the walk up. After a few minutes Ariadne begins to realize that the stairs lead nowhere, in fact the three of them haven't gone more than ten steps off the ground even though Ariadne knew they had traveled many more.

"I had been working on something entirely new before I got caught, Eames. Would you like to see?" Alice asks calmly as they climb.

"Something new?" it's clear that Eames is intrigued.

They all stop on their way up, Alice turns to Ariadne, "Just stand still for a second." Alice closes her eyes in concentration; Ariadne does the same although not instructed to do so.

After a few brief moments Eames exclaims in awe, "Well that's just brilliant, love! How do you do such a thing? It's like the real person."

Ariadne opens her eyes and looks at the two of them, who just smile back at her wickedly. "What? What did you do to me?"

"You see though, I can never get the eyes or the voice right." Alice sighs leaning into the Forger. He nods in agreement; the pair looks like doctors discussing what to do about a certain difficult operation.

"What did you **do**?" Ariadne demands with a stomp of her foot. This action brings both Alice and Eames into a fit of laughter, Alice even squeezes out a few tears before conjuring a mirror out of nowhere that hangs in mid air.

Ariadne peers at herself in the mirror, only to see and image of Dom looking back at her. Alice and Eames are still doubled over laughing and holding onto each other, unable to properly explain to the poor Architect what an amusing forging joke Alice has played on her. So instead Alice waves her hand and a second mirror appears behind Ariadne. It is in this reflection that she sees behind the single reflection of Dom were the double reflections of her are hiding.

Alice has somehow turned Ariadne's body into that of Dom's!

In fury and embarrassment Ariadne pushes Alice off the staircase, "Why would you do that!" she yells after the falling woman.

"You're back to normal now, doll." Eames tells her in a disapproving tone and, "What'd you go and do that for?"

Ariadne suddenly feels worse; she has just sent Alice out of the dream for nothing more than a small prank and a demonstration of her power. "I…"

"Oh please. I can't believe you both thought a little tumble would do me in." Alice's voice rings out. Eames and Ariadne look around in bewilderment. "Up here!"

They look up, and there, floating benevolently in the air above them, is Alice. She moves up and down slightly in the air as a bobber does in the water. No wings, no wires, all Alice and her impossible ideas.


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm SO sorry everyone that this has taken almost LITERALLY forever.**

**In Sept. my boyfriend of 2.5 years broke up with me via a 2 sentence text at 1 AM ($$hole), then 2 weeks later my parents got divorced and a week after that my roommate kicked me out.**

**Sooo I've been depressed for a while and had no motivation to write a romance story - not even about Arthur. But hopefully I'll be back now with some more updates!**

**Thank you ALL for sticking with me and rating and commenting. Stick with me again and you won't be dissapointed.**

**3**

Alice checks her charm bracelet again nearly twenty minutes after sharing that dream with Ariadne and Eames. _Still reality_, she thinks to herself with a relieved sigh.

"Don't tell me you're as paranoid as your brother is." Ariadne asks tensely.

"What do you mean?"

"That's about the fifth time you've looked at your bracelet. I'm assuming there's a specific charm on there that acts as your totem?" Realizing the possible threat in her words almost immediately after speaking them Ariadne hurries to retract her statement, "I'm sorry, that's none of my business. This is so new to me and I'm too curious for my own good." Ariadne sets down her sketchpad and tugs at the bandana around her throat, "Speaking of which, I was a total - "

"Bitch," Alice interjects.

The look Ariadne gives Alice is not the kindest of glances but doesn't disagree with the woman's word choice, "and I want to apologize. I think I'm just not too keen on the idea of having to share my mind with _more_ people. Especially someone so close to Dom."

Alice sets down her own sketchpad – both women were designing mazes for the mission – and looks at Ariadne steadily, "Apology accepted. First impression were never my strong suit either," Alice raises her voice purposefully for a moment, "In fact, when I first met Eames I spilt a drink on him and in my daze of embarrassment proceeded to knock his own drink onto him as well!"

"Yes, and the rest is history love!" Eames calls from across the warehouse with an easy wave of his hand and a laugh evident in his voice.

Ariadne let a giggle escape into her hand at her two playful colleagues before calming herself, "You've only just met Yusuf and Saito with no big terrible first impression. What about Arthur?"

"Arthur?" Alice muses, rolling his name over her tongue as if it were a taste she wanted to savor. She glances over at the Point Man who is clicking away diligently on a computer gathering information not paying attention to anything around him. "Arthur I met when I bailed him and Dom out of jail while I was a senior in college."

"You were bailing them out of jail?" Ariadne's gasp is mixed with amusement and real surprise.

Alice raises one graceful eyebrow and smirks, "You do know this mission is highly illegal, yes? It shouldn't surprise you then that they – we all – have had run-ins with the law."

"No, I suppose you're right."

"Get used to that, Alice thinks she's always right."

"So you _were_ listening!" Alice laughs at the Point Man who still remains glued to the computer screen but he turns his head a fraction to the side so that Alice can see his pleased upturned lips.

The two women fall into silence and go back to sketching the dreamscapes for Mr. Robert Fischer.

It was dark out when Ariadne finally rubs her eyes and puts down her sketchpad, "I've got to go. I have class in the morning"

Alice puts her own sketchpad down and flexes her cramping hands slowly, "I'll walk you back to your dorm if that's ok? I'm exhausted anyway."

"Sure, if it's not out of your way."

Alice just shakes her head with a smile and goes off to find Dom. He's sitting at his desk secluded from the others, fingers in his hair and eyes down at the papers in front of him.

"Dom," Alice murmurs softly as not to startle him.

He still jumps a bit in his chair, however, and looks up questioningly.

"Ariadne and I are leaving. I'll see you when you get back to the hotel?"

He grunts in what Alice can only assume is agreement and ducks his head back to his papers. She doesn't turn to leave however, instead studies her older brother. _He's so tired in every sense. Dom, what can I do? Ask me and I'd do anything._ Alice was suddenly overcome with the desire to fall upon her knees and beg Dom out of his depression. _He'd been different ever since Mal's death_, _I know it wasn't his fault. He's capable of many things but not murder._ She resists begging, knowing that such an act would do more damage than good. Dom would sink deeper knowing that he was causing such agony in others.

Alice eventually gathers herself and walks back to the table she and Ariadne had been occupying. Ariadne is showing Arthur what she had been working on for the day and Alice catches a comment from Arthur upon her approach, "I see Alice has had a bit of an influence on your newer version."

Alice sneaks up next to him and loops her arm through Arthur's, who is surprised but doesn't seem to mind. "Well that's why I'm here!" Alice purrs, "To help train the aspiring Architect, no? Let's go Ariadne, we can grab a bite to eat I'm starving."

As she retrieves her arm from Arthur's he touches her wrist lightly, with her head cocked gently to the side Alice turns back to him. He clearly speaks to both of them, but holds Alice's eyes, "Both of you be careful."

Ariadne nods in assurance and Alice salutes him with a wink. Then they are off into the city streets.

They take seats across from each other at a café to get a small meal. "So why are you walking me home?"

Alice smiles warily, "You're more perceptive than I thought. Forgive me."

"I'm not upset that there's an ulterior motive here, I'm just curious as to what I've done."

"You've done nothing except hint at what I've been worrying about."

Ariadne wrinkles her brow in silent question.

"You keep mentioning that there's some problem with Dom and therefore you aren't keen on sharing dreams with him in particular."

"Oh…"

"I'd like you to elaborate, if you will. I'd ask the others but I think they'd sugarcoat it for me. I get the sense that you want me to know."

"The others wouldn't sugarcoat it for you because they don't know. Not really. Only Arthur and I seem to know."

"Know what exactly?"

"About Mal and her interferences…" Ariadne begins to tell Alice what has been revealed of Dom's subconscious thus far.


End file.
